April 17, 2009

Top Ten: Comic Book Villains (Part Two)

The Green Goblin:Despite a rather underwhelming debut in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (1963), the Green Goblin was still the most mysterious and intriguing figure in Spidey's burgeoning rogues gallery. Unlike other comic book villains, the true identity of the Green Goblin was kept secret from even the reader for several years. According to comic book legend, co-creator Steve Ditko wanted the Goblin to remain completely anonymous, having grown tired of stories where the villain is unmasked as someone known by the hero. Well, thankfully (in this case) Ditko was overuled by Stan Lee, because in Spider-Man #39 (1966) the Goblin was revealed to be Norman Osborn, the father of Peter Parker's best friend. That same issue, Osborn discovered Parker was actually Spider-Man, escalating their conflict to an intensely personal level. Another fascinating (and somewhat groundbreaking) aspect of Osborn was his struggle with mental illness. Sure, insanity had been a pillar of supervillainy for quite awhile, but Osborn's psychosis gave readers a glimpse into the twilight world of mental illness that no comic book had really explored before. This cyclical struggle culminated in the death of Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man #121 (1973), followed by the ironic death of Osborn the very next issue.

Sadly, anyone familiar with the current Marvel Universe knows that Norman Osborn was retroactively resurrected some years ago, was revealed to have secretly fathered two children with Gwen Stacy (!), and is now some kind of out-of-control Homeland Security official bent on world domination. Or something.

Well, in my mind, Norman Osborn is still dead from a bat-glider to the chest...with his evil still haunting Peter Parker from beyond the grave.

Galactus:For the first quarter century of superhero comics, villains didn't do much more than steal money from banks or priceless artifacts from museums. However, in Fantastic Four #48 (1966), Jack Kirby and Stan Lee upped the ante to the Nth degree with Galactus, an elaborately-armored space god so powerful, he could steal the life force of entire planets! Although many near-omnipotent figures have come along since Galactus, ol' bucket-head remains my favorite (despite some funky costume issues in his first few appearances). As the years went by, Galactus became a more ambiguous figure...less a straight-up villain and more a universal force of nature who occasionally assisted the planet Earth when he wasn't threatening to consume it.

Magneto: X-Men #1 (1964) not only marked the first appearance of Marvel's future cash cows, but of their number one villain as well. Starting out as a more one-note "take over the world" bad guy (complete with a dopey Magna-Car), Magneto evolved into a richer, much more complex character whose mutant power and hatred of humanity was triggered by the Holocaust. For a brief time, he worked with fellow mutant Charles Xavier to help other mutants, but their friendship ended when Magneto believed mutants should rule humanity instead of peacefully co-exist with it. Besides the compelling backstory, Magneto's immense power over Earth's magnetic fields and his unique costume design (love that helmet!) more than qualify him for Top Ten status.

Doctor Doom: Yet another utterly unique creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Victor Von Doom has menaced just about every Marvel superhero since his debut in Fantastic Four #5 (1962). Like no other villain before him, Doom was the ruler of an entire country, a tiny Balkan kingdom named Latveria. Thanks to his diplomatic immunity, Doom was free to roam the world with impunity, using his mastery of both sorcery and super-science to conquer it (well, attempt to conquer it). His iron mask, armor, and flowing cape are said by some to the be the inspiration for Darth Vader's look (a claim I've yet to confirm), but whatever the case, Doom's medieval costume, skull-like mask, and towering hubris are the paragon of classic comic book evil.

The Joker: Coming as a surprise to exactly nobody, the Joker wins the number one slot on my Top Ten Villains list. This ghastly, clown faced killer made his first appearance in Batman #1 (1940) and is clearly one of the most chilling, frightening figures in all of fiction. Except for a brief period when he was portrayed as a relatively harmless, light-hearted nuisance, the Joker has always been a deadly, darkly humorous figure whose roots go far deeper than his comic book origins. Like the comedy and

tragedy masks of antiquity, as well as various jester/harlequin archetypes from across the centuries, the Joker's sardonic smile taps into the darker recesses of the human psyche. After all, at the core, most humor has an element of cruelty to it...which the Joker ruthlessly embodies and exploits. Adding to his appeal is the blank slate of his background before he became the Joker. A bit like what Steve Ditko had wanted for the Green Goblin (see #5 above), the Joker's anonymity makes his existence all the more mysterious and...in some ways...borderline supernatural. Bottom line? The Joker is, quite simply, the perfect embodiment of uninhibited cruelty and chaos that many of us find disturbingly...liberating? How many comic book villains can have that kind of impact?

Yeah, I have to admit being a little surprised myself at how many Marvel villains made the top five. Maybe it's because so many of DC's villains, while memorable, were much more "gimmicky" and one-note. Recently that's been changing (thanks to writers like Geoff Johns who are really digging in deep and expanding many of them)...and I could see guys like Captain Cold or Sinestro finding their way onto the Top Ten list at some point.

You have some interesting choices too, Wes. Red Skull is definitely up there for me as well, and MODOK is certainly one of the most visually entertaining characters EVER. I like the inclusion of "faceless armies" on your list. They're obviously not an individual villain, but in a way, they do come off as a unified "entity" of sorts.

As for Lex, I'm not particularly fond of him in any incarnation. Well, at least not enough to stick him in a top ten list. I actually wouldn't mind a several year moratorium on Luthor appearances, since I think the character's worn out his welcome with so much face time the past 20 to 25 years.

Your perspective on Galactus is particularly refreshing. The FF had battled extraterrestrial menaces since their debut (perhaps recycled from Atlas Comics then-recent monster books), but you are correct that Galactus embodied something new. Such cosmic themes appear to have been in the zeitgeist, with Kubrick & Clarke's 2001 showing up two year later.

How did I forget about Galactus and Magneto? The top five really were pretty much what I expected and if I'd remembered those two i would definitely have gotten all of them right.

I don't know much about the current incarnation of Lex Luthor, but I did think the 1960s Weisinger version was interesting. DC had a kind of "hidden" continuing story involving Luthor from 1963-1966 or so, which did a great deal to humanize him.